Ripped from the Headlines: April 2020: This Week In Words: April 5–11, 2020

Stories about the future of the economy, hirings and firings in the administration, and Bernie Sanders dropping out of the presidential race lead off our list of timely vocabulary from the week's news.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. amplify
    increase the volume of
    “Even in ordinary times, food insecurity in American households is an important problem, and unfortunately Covid-19 is amplifying that stress significantly,” Bezos, 56, said in an Instagram post last week.
    – Guardian (Apr 7, 2020)
    Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey says he's donating more than a quarter of his nearly $4 billion fortune to a new company dedicated to pandemic relief. The company, called Start Small, will make all of its payments visible to the public. Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and richest man in the world, has donated $100 million, less than .01% of his total net worth, to Feeding America, a charity that helps stock food banks.
  2. complacent
    contented to a fault with oneself or one's actions
    But NHS England medical director Stephen Powis warned now was not the time to become "complacent".
    – BBC (Apr 8, 2020)
    British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's condition has improved somewhat. After two days in intensive care for COVID-19, his doctors said that he was making progress. Shortly before being diagnosed ten days ago, Johnson had made a point of shaking lots of people's hands and downplaying the severity of the illness. Complacent is a Latin word, meaning "pleased." In English it means "having a false sense of security."
  3. conciliatory
    making or willing to make concessions
    The president said the public health arm of the U.N. “blew it” in taking too conciliatory of a stance toward the Chinese government after the coronavirus was discovered in Wuhan in December.
    – Washington Times (Apr 8, 2020)
    After President Trump criticized the WHO (World Health Organization) and threatened to withhold funding for the group in the midst of a global pandemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus responded by saying that politicizing the battle against the virus will only result in "many more body bags." In Latin, a conciliator is someone who brings opposing parties together in agreement.
  4. makeshift
    done or made using whatever is available
    You're building makeshift hospitals all over the state.
    – NPR (Apr 7, 2020)
    California trails only New York in the number of COVID-19 cases. While the Bay Area locked down early and quickly, the southern part of the state is seeing a rapid rise in cases. Hospitals are being built in sports stadiums, schools, and anywhere else space can be found. To make a shift — with shift here in the sense of movement or change — is an old expression for accomplishing something by any means necessary; makeshift means using whatever is available to achieve a goal.
  5. naive
    marked by or showing unaffected simplicity
    Modly came under fire and was called upon by Democratic lawmakers to resign after remarks made during his address to the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt were reported, revealing he had called former Capt. Brett Crozier "too naive or too stupid" to command the stricken aircraft carrier.
    – USA Today (Apr 7, 2020)
    The acting Secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly, resigned after criticizing the captain of an aircraft carrier. That captain, Brett Crozier, was dismissed for trying to get the Navy to evacuate sailors, sick with COVID-19, from the ship. Crozier's firing outraged many military personnel, who said that he was only trying to protect his crew. He received a standing ovation from them as he left the ship after losing his job.
  6. ouster
    a person who supplants someone else
    The ouster came only days after Trump’s controversial firing of Michael Atkinson, the inspector general at the Intelligence Department who was legally required to turn over the whistleblower complaint to Congress that ultimately led to Trump’s impeachment.
    – Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Apr 7, 2020)
    President Trump fired Glenn Fine, the Defense Department inspector general who had been appointed to supervise the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill that recently passed. Fine had received bipartisan support, given his reputation for integrity. Congressional Democrats immediately said that this is another sign that Trump does not want anyone overseeing the payments.
  7. protocol
    forms of ceremony and etiquette observed by officials
    The exit path from lockdowns will be precarious, with uneasy consumers, a stop-start rhythm that inhibits efficiency, and tricky new health protocols.
    – Economist (Apr 8, 2020)
    What will the economy look like after the pandemic is over? Which businesses will survive? Because of the scope of this disaster, previous recessions aren't much help in making predictions. Protocol comes from the ancient Greek protokollon, meaning "first leaf of a papyrus scroll," where the official seal and title would have been in any legal document or law.
  8. surrogate
    someone or something that takes the place of another
    Those who have worked with her describe her meticulous preparation and attention to detail, a smart yet low-maintenance surrogate who came prepared and never asked aides for talking points.
    – CNN (Apr 7, 2020)
    Kayleigh McEnany was hired as White House Press Secretary, replacing Stephanie Grisham, who didn't give a single press conference during her time in the job. A controversial choice, McEnany recently said "We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here." Surrogare is a Latin verb meaning "to substitute one thing for another."
  9. unorthodox
    breaking with tradition or typical norms
    It’s one more element of shock and uncertainty in a brief stretch of political history that has the most unorthodox presidency in memory, punctuated by an impeachment and Russian interference in U.S. elections.
    – Washington Post (Apr 8, 2020)
    Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign for the Democratic nomination. He fell behind former Vice President Joe Biden in the delegate count after poor performances in a number of primaries and could not see a path forward, especially given the added complications of the pandemic. Orthodoxos is Greek for "correct." Unorthodox means "unusual" or "against the rules."
  10. venture
    proceed somewhere despite the risk of possible dangers
    Some didn’t arrive, some couldn’t be legally witnessed and others were afraid to venture outside their homes to return their ballots by Tuesday night’s deadline.
    – New York Times (Apr 7, 2020)
    In a move that shocked and outraged many observers, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court forced the state of Wisconsin to go ahead with its election, despite the pandemic and the resulting closure of many polling places; Milwaukee had just five out of 180 open. In addition, absentee and mail-in ballots were severely restricted. This ruling, and the chaos that followed, will certainly lead to the the results being challenged as illegitimate.
Created on Wed Apr 08 11:37:14 EDT 2020 (updated Fri Apr 10 15:49:29 EDT 2020)

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